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Last week, I put some miles on my DeLorean GIF, traveling through the last 30 years checking out the soundtracks to hit No. 1 since the reign of Purple Rain. It got you guys talking! It got me Spotifying! So, for this week’s installment of Somewhere in Time, I’m following it up with a look at 25 other significant, hit-spawning soundtracks from the past 30 years that, for one reason or another, failed to make it to the top of the charts, even though it seemed like you and everyone you know listened to them all the time. (I’m also including, way at the end, two soundtracks that did hit number one but that I failed to include last time because I’m only human, guys.) We begin on a chilly Chicagoland Saturday morning in 1985 …

Weirdest moment: A limp version of Nik Kershaw’s “Wouldn’t It Be Good” by Danny Hutton Hitters, a group led by a former member of Three Dog Night. You know, as the teens of 1986 demanded.

Most on-the-nose track: There’s the Psychedelic Furs’ song that inspired the film’s title, and then there’s Suzanne Vega’s “Left of Center,” which seems like it inspired the screenplay.

Can you listen to it all the way through? New Order? The Smiths? Echo and the Bunnymen? This is the most auto-reverse-worthy soundtrack of all time, especially if — like some of us crafty home-tapers — you subbed in the original “Wouldn’t It Be Good.”

What it tells us about 1986: John Hughes had learned his lesson, and indie-minded ’80s teens got a lovely ’80s indie sampler platter.

Less Than Zero (1987)

Synopsis: “Adaptation” comes to mean “total subversion.”

Monster hits: The Bangles’ cover of “Hazy Shade of Winter” and LL Cool J’s “Going Back to Cali.”

Can you listen to it all the way through? This one is too all over the place not to skip around, but I hope you lingered on Public Enemy’s “Bring the Noise.” An Andrew McCarthy ABC Afterschool Special interpretation of a Bret Easton Ellis novel is a weird way for the world to have been introduced to PE, but that was the ’80s for you.

What it tells us about 1987: There was a market for an evil version of the Pretty in Pink soundtrack.

Cocktail (1988)

Synopsis: Tom Cruise tends bar at massive New York City club that falls silent for occasional poetry, nation does not so much suspend disbelief as cancel it entirely.

Monster hit: Paul Westerberg’s “Dyslexic Heart,” Screaming Trees’ “Nearly Lost You,” and Alice in Chains’ “Would?” all got tons of play on the “alternative” stations that were then brand-new.

Weirdest moment: Cameron Crowe’s then-wife Nancy Wilson and Nancy’s sister Ann, appearing here as the Lovemongers, with a cover of Led Zeppelin’s “The Battle of Evermore”

Most on-the-nose track: All of them.

Can you listen to it all the way through? This is an impeccably curated soundtrack. A grunge mixtape. A Seattle sampler. Yes.

What it tells us about 1992: Our soul patches were coming in nicely.

Beverly Hills, 90210 (1992)

Synopsis: Fox cashes in just before 9-0’s huge third season.

Monster hit: “Saving Forever for You,” by Shanice, which went to No. 4 and then immediately deleted itself from our collective memory.

Weirdest moment: Hidden among early ’90s sensations Color Me Badd, Paula Abdul, and Jeremy Jordan, there’s a Michael McDonald/Chaka Khan duet! Did Jim and Cindy have a story line in season three or something?

Most on-the-nose track: “Theme From Beverly Hills, 90210,” John Davis

Can you listen to it all the way through? Oh, my goodness, no.

What it tells us about 1992: There was power in the sideburn.

Reality Bites (1994)

Synopsis: Artsy post-grads enjoy the last five minutes before the internet.

Most on-the-nose track: “I’m Nothin’” by Ethan Hawke as Troy, lead singer of Hey, That’s My Bike. Troy would say things like “I’m bursting with fruit flavor” as a sarcastic way of saying he was enthused. Troy was kind of the worst. Can we admit this now?

Can you listen to it all the way through? Oh, I did. Me Phi Me and all.

What it tells us about 1994: Alternative radio was at the peak of its dominance. The Indians sounded like plausible hit-makers. The mid-’90s was the best of times for rock music. How did we end the decade with Staind?

Pulp Fiction (1994)

Synopsis: Quentin Tarantino gives world a look into his mind, world has several episodes of severe anxiety.

Can you listen to it all the way through? Toad the Wet Sprocket? Better Than Ezra? The Innocence Mission? This is like someone pulled a mixtape right out of my 1995 cardigan pocket. Put it on repeat now.

What it tells us about 1995: Pretty much the same as Reality Bites, so here is where I’ll tell you that both Ethan Embry and Johnny Whitworth go to my gym. Embry is covered in prison tattoos nowadays, but other than that, they have held up wonderfully.

Weirdest moment: “Wise Up,” Aimee Mann, and the scene in the movie where every character sings along to it. (If weirdest can be taken to mean best, which I have decided it can.)

Most on-the-nose track: “Deathly,” Aimee Mann

Can you listen to it all the way through? Aside from Gabrielle’s “Dreams,” a couple of Supertramp songs, and a Jon Brion instrumental, this is an Aimee Mann album posing as a soundtrack and I’ll take it. Yes.

What it tells us about 1999: We were just starting to trust Paul Thomas Anderson after the firecrackers scene in Boogie Nights and then William H. Macy goes and breaks his teeth. Dammit, Anderson!

Lost in Translation (2003)

Synopsis: Sofia Coppola gets last laugh.

Monster hit: “City Girl,” Kevin Shields, if you listened to a lot of KCRW were my Vulture editor, John Sellers.

Can you listen to it all the way through? If you spent an hour in a Hollister in 2004, you probably did.

What it tells us about 2004: We were back to joyful rock music for a moment. Phantom Planet? Rooney? Morningwood? Take me back.

Sing-a-Longs and Lullabies for the Film Curious George, Jack Johnson (2006; this one actually hit #1)

Synopsis: Monkey wants to know.

Monster hit: “Upside Down”

Weirdest moment: My suspicion that the Curious George–Jack Johnson synergy came about because they kind of look alike.

Most on-the-nose track: “The 3 R’s (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle).” Or maybe “The Sharing Song.” Or “Hey, I Made Quinoa.” I might have made that last one up. This is a very Jack Johnson album is what I’m saying.

Most on-the-nose track: All of them, but especially “Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want” as covered by Zooey Deschanel’s musical outfit She & Him.

Can you listen to it all the way through? Certainly.

What it tells us about 2009: It was Zooey Deschanel’s world and we were all just living in it.

Glee the Music Vol 3: Showstoppers (2010; this one actually hit #1)

Synopsis: A campy high-school singing troupe does a cappella covers of familiar songs.

Monster hit: Everything, as I recall? This was during those heady days when the Glee kids had 14 songs in the top 10 at once.

Weirdest moment: “Give Up the Funk.” Glee, I know you, and you do not do funk.

Most on-the-nose track: It’s a tie between “Gives You Hell” and “I Dreamed a Dream,” and that’s all you need to know about Glee.

Can you listen to it all the way through? Not anymore, probably. Glee betrayed our trust and turned us off, and I blame Ryan Murphy’s short attention span. I mean, Brittney’s Christmas wish is for Artie to walk, so Coach Awfulle (or whatever her name is) anonymously gives him Israeli Army robo-legs, which cost upwards of $100,000, which: Where would she even get that money?, and then we never see those robo-legs again? You can only jerk us around so many times, Murphy.

What it tells us about 2010: Seriously, I was surprised he didn’t abandon the AIDS story line 20 minutes into The Normal Heart.